ADULTS ARE COM­MENDED

I COM­MEND two adults who I saw dis­ci­pline high school stu­dents last Fri­day af­ter­noon while I made a bus trip into Perth.

Firstly, a teacher from the school came out of an aged-care vil­lage to the stop to speak to stu­dents wait­ing there. Residents had seen stu­dents dis­turb­ing their peace by hang­ing off trees (and dam­ag­ing the bus stop from what I could see) and may have used the vil­lage as a thor­ough­fare.

The teacher sought names from stu­dents and re­minded them that they were un­der watch and any “bad” be­hav­iour while in school uni­form re­flected poorly on the school.

At the stop near the school en­trance, a tribe of stu­dents en­tered the bus with stand­ing room only.

The driver came out from his seat to in­struct that a girl on crutches be given a seat where it states: Please give a seat to some­one who needs it more than you”.

The driver also left the bus later and came to the mid­dle door to in­struct stu­dents to move back in the bus to al­low room for in­com­ing pas­sen­gers. He did that with­out fuss and the stu­dents obeyed.

The bus ride it­self was not smooth be­cause of an ac­cel­er­a­tion fault, and the noisy bab­ble of the stu­dents un­til most had left the bus was an­other dis­trac­tion.

I do feel the stu­dents should take more re­spon­si­bil­ity for their own be­hav­iour and have more of the re­spect that teach­ers ask of them.

I saw the girl with the crutches us­ing them at the bus port – her need to sit down as soon as she could was ob­vi­ous.

I did ask my­self “What is the mat­ter with these kids that they need to be told to do things that ap­pear ob­vi­ous to any­one with half a brain?”

On a more pos­i­tive note, I asked to buy a packet of bis­cuits from a girl who was lug­ging a box la­belled Girl Guide Bis­cuits, which are sold as a fundraiser for the or­gan­i­sa­tion. I rec­om­mend the dou­ble choco­late ones. CAROL ROE, Man­ning.